Ortus – The Home of Maudsley Learning, is a 1,550sqm pavilion development housing learning and event facilities, a cafe and exhibition spaces. The central focus of this unique project, initially coined ‘Project Learning Potential’, was to create a totally immersive learning environment generating a series of inter-connecting spaces to encourage intuitive learning activities, either in groups or individually.

The building is home to Maudsley Learning, a Community Interest Company that has been set up to run the building. Its vision was to raise knowledge and awareness of mental health and wellbeing which it intends to achieve through the development of a virtual learning environment and the creation of learning events focusing on mental health and wellbeing across a broad audience.

The interior is planned as a series of flexible, sub-dividable spaces around a central multifunctional space, navigated by a grand ‘open’ staircase. 

This central space is key for the environmental performance of the building, which is uniquely passive, by introducing abundant natural light from a glazed roof into the heart of the plan. Regularly spaced full height opening windows are limited to a small steel profile and are connected to the intelligent BMS system for Co2 and temperature control or manual over-ride by the users, introducing cooling air as required at each level throughout day and night, feeding the central stack of the void.

The building was delivered through a PPC 2000 Partnering project, tailored for Construction Management procurement. As a highly sustainable building, it is designed to BREEAM excellent standard and has an ‘A’ energy rating.
The project was delivered on time and on budget.

Ortus – The Home of Maudsley Learning represents our increasing focus on the public sector. We were named Public Building Architect of the Year 2013, with schemes for education, arts and cultural programmes now comprising a significant proportion of our workload. Ortus – Gateway Learning was the recipient of the Best Education Building and the Supreme Winner in the Brick Awards programme 2013. This project has also received awards in the BCI Awards (2014), The NLA Awards (2014), Civic Trust Award (2014) and RIBA Jounral Schueco Award for Design Excellence (2014). The project was also a close runner in the shortlist for Stirling Prize 2014.